This invention relates to the telephones, and more particularly to a telephone apparatus comprising a cradle and a handset.
Modern telephones, whether they be wall mounted or desk mounted, generally have an inclined base with two recesses for receiving a handset in the "on-hook" or idle condition. The cradle is designed such that the handset falls naturally into the fully inserted position and activates a switch that detects the presence of the handset to hang up the line. It is important to ensure that the handset, when placed approximately in the cradle, will automatically fall into the fully inserted position so as to be certain that the user will terminate the call upon hanging up the handset.
A common problem, which many people have experienced, is that when a call comes in for a different party from the one answering the phone, the answering party must put the handset down while he finds the person being called. He must take care not to place the handset in the cradle because to do so would cut off the calling party. Presently, most users place the handset on a desk or other surface, but in the case of wall mounted telephones this is not always possible and sometimes it is actually necessary to leave the handset suspended by its cord from the wall mounted phone.
JP 02-241251 describes an arrangement for retaining equipment in a holding state, which employs a displaceable holding member and an extra special switch provided for the purpose. This arrangement thus requires extra circuitry and additional moving parts, which make the device more complex and thus more expensive to manufacture.
An object of the present invention is to aleviate the aforementioned problem.